Like many Americans, Chris and Anna Smith were in search of the perfect home. The couple found a 10-acre lot in Greene County, North Carolina, that was surrounded by lush greenery, NBC News reports.

The community is small – only 21,000 people occupy 250 square miles. Soybeans, tobacco and trees grow in the town that is known as "self enduring" and "traditionally stable."

It was the perfect spot for Anchor House — the first-ever safe home for boys who'd been sold for sex in the United States. The Smiths estimate it will cost $460,000 to get Anchor House started, and they've raised much of it from private donors.

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"I just knew, I just knew in my soul, that this was it — that we had found the property," Anna Smith, herself a survivor of sex trafficking, recalled to NBC News. She hoped it was a place where the boys would feel safe and begin to heal.

The children Anchor House aims to serve are recruited into the American sex trade and live on society's margins. Young and naive, they are lured by promises of money, shelter, and attention. They're approached at school, on the streets, in group homes, homeless shelters, and online. Sometimes, they're kidnapped. These used and abused boys go unnoticed because most advocacy groups focus on girls. But researchers and advocates are finally starting to work to help boys who are trapped in the illegal sex industry, as well.

But community residents are enraged, calling the Smiths liars, profiteers, and reckless for bringing the shelter to their town.

Carson Edwards, who was born, raised and still lives in Greene County, told NBC News the newspaper tipped him off to the coming of the safe house. "On the front page I saw this was happening," Edwards said. He and others are afraid the boys who will inhabit the home are drug-addict criminals. Neighbors' biggest objection, though, was that they weren't notified by the Smiths.

A safe house doesn't need special land-use approvals, and the couple used a different name to register the property to protect the boys' privacy. "A safe home really is supposed to be more of a quiet matter, because it's a refuge for a boy to come out of a trafficking situation where it's dangerous," Anna explained. "I had not notified the neighbors for that reason and had hoped to do so on a one-on-one manner as the home had progressed."

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But now that the news got out, tensions in the area are high: Someone hung a banner at the Greene County line that is stamped with "no sex trafficking lodge here." Others, on main roads, read: "No Restore One Anchor House Here."

The Smiths, who founded their Christian ministry, Restore One, in 2012, initially set out to help girls in the same situation. But the couple from Greenville, North Carolina, changed their minds when they learned how desperate boys in the sex trade were in need of shelter.

One study by the John Jay School of Criminal Justice found half of commercially exploited children in New York City were young males. That's a stark contrast to what many believe, that sex-trafficking primarily involves girls and women forced into prostitution. When people escape trafficking, their greatest need is often for shelter, the Polaris Project reports. But the organization estimates there are only 529 shelter beds in the U.S. for these victims — and only two of those were designated for boys or men.

"We started to learn and started to see that boys were forgotten," Anna's husband Chris Smith, a survivor of abuse, said. "That their stories were real. That across America, boys, just like girls, are being sold for sex. And no one is talking about it."

Chris Anderson, CEO of support group Male Survivor, is talking about it — he told NBC News that we live in a society where a man can't be a victim. Male victimhood "is one of the least talked about and least known areas of sexual violence and sexual exploitation," Anderson said.

Anchor House is almost complete and even has a classroom and dining hall that will provide shelter, education, nutrition, and activities to boys from the ages of 12 to 18. The couple won't be providing the restorative care themselves. But Anna, 26, a certified yoga teacher, hopes to help them with breathing, meditation and movement. Chris, 27, has his eyes set on fishing with the young men. The ultimate goal? For these boys to escape the horror that has defined their lives and begin to rebuild.

The home will ultimately house 12 boys referred by law enforcement, advocacy groups or other nonprofits. Angry, concerned neighbors can rest assured the boys of Anchor House must submit to — and pass a mental health evaluation and drug test.

This is still not good enough for residents in Greene County who are fine with a safe house, as long as it isn't in their neck of the woods.

Too bad: The Smiths not only have their eye on the prize but have just one more license to obtain from the North Carolina Department of Social Services before they can start taking applications for boys.

"I guess it's naïve to think that everyone would love to have a safe home for boys who have been sexually trafficked in the vicinity of their home," Anna Smith said. "I feel like this is making history."